Because after the Lowry trade Morey comments on how he had wanted Lowry for a long time. Same with Kevin Martin. You didn't hear these things about Hill. People like to play the "Morey likes to play the PR game" card but in reality when it comes to stuff like this Morey is actually a pretty open book AFTER THE FACT. And considering that Kevin Martin was the main cog in this trade and not Jordan Hill... I would say that Morey didn't make this trade mostly for the purposes of acquiring Hill's services. Obviously we don't have indisputable proof one way or the other. But I think it's pretty reasonable to make the above statement based on what we know.
WTF? So by your logic, John Wall isn't the Rockets first choice because they wanted Patterson at 14... and got him?
If you look back the last few years, Morey has actually been very truthful about his thoughts. He just doesn't reveal too much of them! And since when did we pump a player's value to trade them? We held out T-Mac and said 'he wasn't ready to play consistent minutes', we traded Landry for KMart for positional need, and we traded Rafer for Lowry because we liked Lowry more and Orlando needed an experienced PG for the playoff run. You can't even argue that for Donte Green - Artest trade, I mean if your draft pick was playing well in summer league, you give him minutes to show what he's capable off (40pts in a game). And surely Morey didn't say he ranked Hill 10-20 vs his actual draft position of 8 to pump him up ...
This is really OT, but Patterson has a vid out there where he is "eating a booger". For anyone who sees this - He got hit in the nose and was bleeding. If he wiped it on his jersey he would have to sit down to get cleaned up. Not a booger - Bleeding from the previous play.
Remember when we passed on 6'7" Paul Millsap? Now we have a taller version of him. I can't believe how many people are all over Jordan Hill just because he's an inch taller than Patterson. Shouldn't surprise me, seeing as how this board is still geeking out over Deandre Jordan.
Totally different matter. As if we were ever able to get Wall.... No. Mock drafts mean squat, does not equal Morey draft order. Curry was projected to be there at 6 to 9. Knickerbockers did not get him. So they took Hill. Reality bites.
If you mean PP's not the 6th best player in your opinion, I have no beef with that. To say that DM is lying is another matter entirely. If he says PP is their 6th best choice and he is their 6th best choice. No reason to lie about it AFTER WE ALREADY DRAFTED HIM. 6th best player in the draft doesn't mean you'll be a 6th time all star. How many lottery picks come out every year? how many turn out to be multiple allstars? A draft pool varies from time to time, most of the time only 1 or 2 players in a draft become multiple all stars.
I like patterson, i just wish we had taken a chance on a high upside player somewhere in the draft. He will be a solid bench player in his career. To those debating patterson vs hill, hill has a much higher ceiling. I disagree about patterson being better even with hill being a late bloomer. Hill only played 3 yrs of college also,but i think he wouldve performed just as well with the freshman class that came in at kentucky. On a side note, how can a program have 5 1st rd picks and not even make the final 4?
I can definately see Patterson being a top 10 pick so having him in 6th best to Morey is not that huge a leap. Its really only 4 spots when i would have had him rated as high as the probably the 8th best player to me personally. Thats only two slots over for Morey. Heck he was on a real god team that some would argue he throttled back his game to let the new guys Walll and Cousins do their thing for the team when he could have easily just taken all of the shots and asked for more touches. He was the best player on the team and a sure top 5 pick the two years prior after all. Maybe even a top 3 pick if he came out after his stellar freshman year. I think he has tremendous upside the likes of some of the best powerforwards in the league. In fact his college averages bare that out statistically.
That team was a playoff team in the East with an over 500 record that would have made it the 6th seed in the East playoffs without Yao or Patterson. Not mediocre team and not another peice probably. Might be a huge peice.
I think this is the general sentiment in the entire Rox organization. They tried to get picks to get that high upside player, but no one wanted to sell them picks for just cash. I think if it wasn't for that Whiteside or at the very least Alabi would have been a rocket already. As far as Kentucky is concerned, its a one and done tournament. I wouldn't really put much into it, the best team in one-and-dones aren't necessarily the champions. If they had a 7 round series like the NBA does it will be much different.
I'm actually okay with the Rockets pick, I just really wanted them to pick one the young 7'0 in the 2nd round. But teams got really stingy ... --RB
Do most people forget that players 7ft or taller tend to be prone to injuries? We certainly don't have as much size as the Lakers, but following trends and histories we could potentially have a healthier frontcourt than theirs.
Also Gasol is the only effective 7 they have. Its not like 7 footer=awesome, if the Gasol trade hadn't happened the Lakers wouldn't be contenders at all.
I really believe that Morey has some kind of deal in place for when free agency starts. There is no way that we are going into next season with that many PF's. Something has to give. I can see a package being put together of Battier, JJ, and Hill. I think we will have a max free agent by the end of July, if not sooner.
